Adagio Tins no more?

Haven't been to this website in months after news first broke about the change from tins to bags. Came back just now as I'm about out of a Pumpkin Spice tea I bought from another retailer (of course) after Adagio came up on a search for "pumpkin tea". Was hoping maybe enough people would've decided to not accept this cheap alternative to the tins, especially without a savings passed to the consumer, but sadly no... Adagio is still using cheap, ghetto bags and people are, for some reason or another, taking it.

Sad. Will check back in another six months or so to see if things have changed. Honestly, if anything, it's ridiculous that Adagio doesn't offer the teas packed in the tin for a small premium or simply up the cost of all their teas to have everything in tins period... Assuming Adagio cheapening out on the consumer is the issue. Considering neither of those two are an option it does appear as though some green agenda is behind all this nonsense though were that the case why aren't the savings passed onto the consumers?

Very disappointing. Fortunately Adagio isn't the only provider of teas to consumers and when tins are once again offered as they were in the past I will be back.

Sorry to hear about your disappointment concerning the new packaging. We transitioned to pouches for a number of reasons including environmental and packaging streamlining. We do continue to offer tins at a very reasonable price for people who prefer the former packaging.

As for your question of pricing, the tea you are referring to (flavored black tea) has not had a price increase since 2001. I think we offer an amazing value on all of our teas and are very competitively priced.

I signed up today when I found this thread, simply so I could comment...

I'd ordered from Adagio for about two years, mostly sample sizes to try different things. This time last year I placed an order for around $200 that included larger sizes, and was thrilled to get the tins. They looked great and were really handy. This is especially true since I have a tiny kitchen and bags of tea usually get tossed in a cardboard box under the microwave cart - I was able to place the tins on a small shelf. Very handy. My husband called dibs on several of them for use at his office - I'm now sorry I gave them to him.

Flash forward to this spring. I placed another order, around $100, mostly of larger sizes. I was excited to open it but dismayed at what I found inside. No tins. Bags. And many crappy looking brown paper bags. I kicked myself for being a moron - obviously I had somehow managed to order the bagged refills instead of the tins. I wasn't sure how, but there was no other explanation I could think of. Oddly enough, when I checked my receipt it didn't mention refills. And I remembered the refills being cheaper, yet I appeared to have been charged full price. Next I thought there was a problem at the warehouse and I'd received the refill bags because they didn't want to delay my order. But since the tins were a major motivator in ordering the tea, I would have preferred to have been contacted. Had I been asked I would have told them waiting was fine. I also would have expected a discount or some letter of explanation, but I received neither. I sent an email explaining my confusion and disappointment. This was June. Still haven't heard a peep from Adagio. Now I know why.

I currently have several Adagio bags tossed in a cardboard box under the microwave cart. I have a crappy brown bag with a pound of almond oolong. I had to cut it open and use a chip clip to hold it closed. The bag has absorbed some moisture, and since I cut a small hole to try and minimize air exposure, every time I measure out tea I end up with tea leaves all over my counter. I'm frankly ready to toss it.

Count me as an extremely unhappy ex-customer. I had planned to buy teas for several friends for Christmas, but will not be buying them from Adagio.

The bags you received were actually an interim solution we were forced to use when we were transitioning from tins to our new resealable pouches. I apologize that we had not responded to your earlier email and will be happy to send you a few empty tins that you can use to store your loose teas. Send me a PM with your order ID and I will take care of it.

I noticed that and i am also disappointed. i placed an order back when Tins were still given and now i am waiting to place another since I know Tins will not be in the next one unless I purchase them. i actually love the small sample Tins and wish these were at least kept when you get the sample size order. I love these because they are the perfect size to take some to work and have the same variety I do at home.

I popped into Adagio for the first time in months in search of a gaiwan and a few new samples, and stumbled across this whole tin thing. Going back to look at the teas I'd have considered, I noticed that indeed, the tins are no longer mentioned for most samples.

Perhaps this is a bit shallow of me, but three things attracted me to Adagio. First, the ingenuity of the products offered. Second, the samples in the square tins, which made EXCELLENT hand-picked gifts to the uninitiated and served to fill up a custom shelf I made just for Adagio (I so wish I'd kept every tin, but I stupidly gave a few away). Third, the layout and organization of the website. While I was learning and growing as a tea drinker, this company was awesome and will always hold a special place in my cup. But, despite the convenience of ordering online, I will be buying my samples from a more local store from now on so I don't have to mess with extra material (transferring bagged contents to purchased tins).

I'm sure Adagio had good reasons for discontinuing its previous practices, but I have to admit that a good portion of Adagio's appeal is lost with them.

Someone mentioned http://www.specialtybottle.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=525 to buy tins from, so I'll probably try there for when I wish to give more generic samplers, but I hope that Adagio can somehow bring in square tins, whether sample-sized or not, in their lovely green tint. I'd return for those.

I may be one of the few people who prefers the bags to the tins. Go fig.

Airtight isn't the same as vacuum-sealed--if the tin's half-full of tea, then it's also half-full of air. With the bags, I can eliminate a lot of that excess air, so the tea stays fresher longer.

Plus I'm a klutz, and I'd already cracked the lid on one Adagio tin by dropping it, dented two sampler tins and spilled half of another when the lid wouldn't come off easily. Much, much less frustration for the clumsy tea lovers here!

Why not have an option in checkout to make the teas come with tins, instead of having people to hunt down the tins in your catalogue? This also means that the tin will be labeled with whatever tea you're buying -- just like the old ones, instead of a generic "Adagio Teas" tin.

Adagio teas coming in tins was before my time. Fortunately we have many choices of vendors. After placing a couple of orders with Adagio, I started shopping around. I found Upton Tea and have placed a few orders with them. One of the main things that attracted me to Upton Tea is that their teas can be ordered in tins or bags. The tea in tins costs a little more, but not as much as buying the tins separately. And, if one has extra tins around, one can order tea in a bag with an extra label. Upton also has a larger selection, and doesn't charge extra for rural delivery.

MarshalN wrote:Why not have an option in checkout to make the teas come with tins, instead of having people to hunt down the tins in your catalogue? This also means that the tin will be labeled with whatever tea you're buying -- just like the old ones, instead of a generic "Adagio Teas" tin.

This option would be awesome as we would be able to get the Adagio experience we're accustomed to and Adagio has an opportunity for an upsell. I can't say that I would do this for every order, but I may for those orders which include new teas.

This is an old discussion, but I just found it now through a Google search.

I strongly second MarshalN's suggestion, to allow people to choose tins if they want. It might even be a smart business decision to sell the tins at cost (as opposed to Teavana's business model, which seems to be to sell tins at an astronomical price).

I ordered a bunch of Adagio samples a few years ago, and I loved the tins. I used them frequently, gave many of them away, and still have one, and wish I had more. I was actually thinking of placing an Adagio and ordering more samples, both because I enjoy sampling teas, and because I would love to have more of those tins.

I was sad to find that the tins had been discontinued...and I think it is particularly bad form and practice that there was no announcement made that the tins were discontinued.

I know that people are buying the tea, and not the tins, but I think there is a certain degree of expectations that people form (and that are reasonable to form) if you regularly purchase a product, and you see no change announced from a business, and order it again.

I also feel that the current tins available for sale are inadequate. I don't want big tins, I want small ones. My kitchen is overflowing with 4 ounce, 6 ounce, and 8 ounce sizes of tea tins. On the other hand I never have enough 1 ounce or smaller tins. For me, I see this change as a major negative one, and a major deterrent to ordering samples from Adagio. I regularly order from Upton Tea Imports, and their samples are significantly cheaper than Adagio's. Many Adagio samples are $3 and some are much more. I also notice that teas of similar grade and quality that are sold by both Upton and Adagio tend to have pricier samples with Adagio. In the past, I saw the tins as extra value that made it more than worth the price premium to order from Adagio. These little things can be the difference between a purchase and no purchase.